my4moles

Prize Money: US$ 2,300,000 (approx).
Venue: DLF Golf & Country Club, Gurgaon, India.
Starts: From February 17th, Thursday till February 20th, Sunday.
Defending Champion: Andrew Dodt (AUS). 

February 11th 2011, New Delhi, India: The region’s elite players will be eager to get their 2011 Asian Tour season off to a flying start when they tee up at the season-opening Avantha Masters in India next week.
The €1.8 million (approximately US$2.3 million) showpiece will be staged from February 17 to 20, 2011 at the DLF Golf and Country Club, with Andrew Dodt of Australia set to defend his crown.
It promises to be an exciting start to the new Asian Tour season which will include a provisional 26 tournaments that will travel throughout Asia and as far as Switzerland over the next 12 months.
The local brigade will be spearheaded by Asian Tour honorary member and two-time Order of Merit winner, Jeev Milkha Singha who will be hoping to bounce back after a dismal 2010 season plagued by injuries.
“I just want to prepare myself to be injury-free in 2011. Becoming fit, and keeping that way, is definitely my priority number one. And if I can manage to do that, I think I will be able to achieve all my other ambitions.
“2010 was a stop-and-start one and I had absolutely no momentum. Just when I thought I was getting back into the swing of things, I got injured again. It was extremely frustrating,” wrote Singh in his blog.
While Singh is hoping to reignite his title charge, much will be expected from three-time Asian Tour Order of Merit winner, Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand who currently holds the record of having the most Asian Tour wins with 13 victories.
The Thai intends to keep up his winning ways but knows that he must start putting more consistently to stay in contention weekly.
“I hope to improve my putting as it is crucial to scoring low. It was not very steady last year and I have been working very hard lately to get myself prepared. I have also been working hard in the gym, hoping to hit the ball a bit longer too,” said Thongchai.
Other stars poised to spearhead the strong Asian challenge at the tri-sanctioned event between the Asian Tour, European Tour and Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) include Singapore’s Mardan Mamat, Japan’s Tetsuji Hiratsuka and 2010 Asian Tour rookie of the year, Rikard Karlberg of Sweden who have a combined total of seven Asian Tour titles.
All eyes will also be on India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar who got his pre-season preparations off to the best possible start when he won three successive titles from three starts.
“I am currently on a winning streak there is a lot of positive energy around me and that helps me come through even in tough situations. This is the second hat-trick of titles in my career and it has given me the much-needed momentum ahead of a long and gruelling season,” said Bhullar to the Indian media following his third successive domestic win last week.